Claustrophobia is a serious incapacitating fear of physical entrapment, a fear of constricted or confined spaces. Most people describe this condition as a sense of suffocation or feeling caged. Many times, this fear is rooted in scary childhood memories buried in the mind or a situation a patient may have witnessed or involved in earlier in life. A person with this disorder will experience extreme fear and panics of getting into small spaces such as elevators, small rooms, caves, closets, trains, cars, airplanes or even suffer the fear if they have to pull a cloth over their heads. Depending on the severity of the disorder a patient will show different symptoms including sweating, hyperventilation, shaking and trembling, lack of concentration, tunnel vision, fainting and even feeling that they are dying.
The treatment
You can treat claustrophobia but I should warn you that there is no one-and-off medicinal remedy that will treat you permanently. As a matter of fact, stay away from medications because they do not really provide relief from this disorder, they will just cause you other serious health issues. The treatment will mainly focus on changing your beliefs and attitude as claustrophobia is a state of mind that can be changed and not a disease. Try to find the root cause of your fear of small spaces to be in a better position to alleviate the symptoms and get rid of the problem.
You can apply remedies used to deal with other conditions such as agoraphobia, aerophobia or emetophobia treatment to overcome claustrophobia but note that a remedy that works for one individual may not necessarily be effective for another. Every time you are in or approaching a palce where you might suffer the fear, keep in control, manage your thoughts, imaginations and memories to lock out any that may trigger the fears. This may not be easy at first but eventually you will manage to beat claustrophobia completely.
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